EA partners with Valve to bring its games back to Steam

Gaming giant Electronic Arts (EA) has announced that it is bringing its games back to the Steam digital distribution platform in partnership with Valve - but that players will still need to have its own Origin software installed.

EA's titles left Valve's Steam distribution platform after the development of EA's in-house Origin platform - but while EA indicated in 2011 that it would be open to putting its games on other storefronts, its own-brand Windows titles have been stubbornly unavailable outside Origin for the past eight years.

That changes now, the company has confirmed, thanks to a partnership with Valve to bring EA games back to Steam. The deal sees EA Access, the company's subscription-based platform, coming to Steam - the first time a games subscription service has been available on Valve's distribution platform - along with individual games starting with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

Fallen Order, available to pre-order on Steam now and launching on November 15th, will be joined by other single-player EA games in the coming months. Multiplayer titles, however, will take a little longer: EA has confirmed that games like Apex Legends, FIFA 20, and Battlefield V won't be available through Steam until some time in 2020, but that Steam and Origin gamers will be able to cross-play together without restriction.

The move doesn't do away with Origin altogether, however: EA games purchased through Steam will need to be launched through Origin for the initial installation process, including requiring an active EA account, after which they will run through Steam as with any other title.